Gaspard Étienne Robert, known as E.G. Robertson the master of
the fantasmagoria, was born at Liège and studied at Leuven.
He was soon appointed professor of physics and specialised in
optics. In 1784 he demonstrated an improved magic lantern (a
predecessor of the slide projector).

He was also an
enthousiastic painter and he moved to Paris to become an artist.
He took his 'fantomes artificiels’ with him. In Paris he attend
lectures by Jacques Charles at the Collège de France. In 1793
he developed a magic lantern show and he gave public demonstrations
in the field of galvanism and optics. In 1796 he discussed a
method of burning English ships with the government of France,
but the government didn't use his ideas.

He created
a phantasmagoria show complete with actors and 'ghosts', using
smoke, mirrors and other attributed. His audience thought that
they had seen real ghosts and after an investigatoon he was
forced to stop his show in Paris. He performed in Bordeaux (where
he made a balloon flight), but soon he was back in Paris. In
1799 he patented his magic lantern on wheels as the Fantoscope.
During the next years he performed at the Convent des Capucines
and afterwards he travelled around the world with it.

In
many countries he flew in balloons and some of them he called
'scientific' because of his meteorological research, but his
results contradicted known laws of physics. In 1806 he flew
from Copenhagen to Roskilde.

In 1826 he had the honour
to open the third Jardin de Tivoli. He died in Paris in 1837.